This invention relates to a photosensitive material processing apparatus and a photosensitive material processing method, and in particular, to a photosensitive material processing apparatus and method, wherein film pieces ejected from an ejecting portion are successively transported to a receiving means by a movable holding means, and the leading edge portions of these transported film pieces are held as trued up by the receiving means, while other portions of the film pieces except the leading edge portions are placed on an accumulating portion, so that it may be prevented that the image surface of any one of the film pieces are rubbed and damaged by the side edges of other film pieces, by preventing that the respective film pieces are rubbed by others after ejection through holding the ejected film pieces stably.
It has been heretofore known a photosensitive material processing apparatus automatically developing pieces of film (photosensitive material) which are longer in the longitudinal direction than in the width direction like a piece of photographic film. FIG. 18 shows a conventional photographic material processing apparatus 10.
In this photosensitive material processing apparatus 10, the leader 1 for transport as shown in FIG. 19 is ordinarily used in transporting film pieces in the apparatus. In the same drawing, the leader 1 is a thin plate made of a resin, and the engaging holes 3 for engaging with the gear for transporting arranged in the apparatus (not shown in the drawing) are bored in a line at the center of this leader 1. The leading edge portions of, in this example, two film pieces are put onto the leader 1 made up in the above-mentioned manner by the sticking tapes 2 respectively.
In FIG. 18, the leader 1 having the film pieces put on in this manner is inserted into the inserting portion 4 provided at the front side of the apparatus, and is ejected to the leader receiving portion 5 after the film pieces are subjected to the specified processing based on the setting in the operation portion 7.
In this case, as shown in FIG. 20, the inserted film pieces are transported into the liquid tank 6 and are subjected to the predetermined processes required for developing by being dipped successively in a plurality of processing liquids of different kinds. Then, the leader 1 ejected to the outside together with the film pieces are held by the leader receiving portion 5 disposed at a relatively high position in the apparatus mainframe.
As shown in FIG. 21, the leader receiving portion 5 is composed of the engaging bar 8 for engaging with the central portion of the lower end surface of the leader 1 and the holding plates 9 for regulating the holding position of the leader 1 from both sides. By the leader receiving portion 5 made up in this manner, a plurality of the leaders 1 are held as shown in FIG. 20.
Incidentally, as shown in FIG. 20, in the conventional photosensitive material processing apparatus 10, the ejected film pieces are hanging down from the leader 1 in an unstable manner without being held directly.
For this reason, the free end portions of the film pieces are easily oscillated even though a very week external force such as wind influences them; hence, especially in a condition that a plurality of the film pieces are accumulated, it has occurred a problem that the respective film pieces are rubbed by others and the image surface of any one of the film pieces are damaged by the side edges of other film pieces even though the ejected film pieces are simply left as they are.